Jeremy Clarkson has claimed that people are "bored" of hearing about
climate change and would rather watch Top Gear than worry about the
environment.

The outspoken television presenter, who was targeted by environmental campaigners last week, said people should be able to enjoy sunny days without feeling guilty about global warming.

Clarkson, 49, made the claims at the launch of Top Gear's Live World Tour, which will include flaming rally cars, underground street racing and stunt driving led by The Stig.

Speaking at London's Royal Geographical Society on Friday, Clarkson said he was not concerned what people might make of the environmental effects of his long-haul flights to complete the tour.

He said: "Every time they put a climate change programme on, 42 people will watch that, eight million or seven million will watch Top Gear.

"I think people are rather bored with the idea of climate change and, when we do get a lovely day, let's just enjoy it, not get guilty."

Clarkson will be joined by Richard Hammond and James May for the shows, which will be based on the BBC television motor programme.

He added that there were no plans to stop making the hit show because they were all having so much fun.

Clarkson said: "We would stop doing Top Gear when we didn't enjoy making it any more, but, at the moment, it is just the most fantastic fun you can have.

"Motor racing can be quite boring, if we're honest – they are even crashing on purpose these days – so we decided to have a race where the cars are set on fire before they start."

Organisers said the shows would play to over 340,000 fans in London, Birmingham, Dublin, Amsterdam, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Sydney, Auckland and Hong Kong.

The worldwide appeal of the programme is something that still surprises Clarkson.

"I'm startled about Top Gear's popularity outside of the UK, even in countries where, as far as I can tell, it isn't on television, like America," Clarkson said.

"We just came back this morning from Romania and I'm not exaggerating when I say thousands of people walked up a mountain just because they thought they might see Richard Hammond's elbow sticking out of a Ferrari."

The first show is at London's Earl's Court from November 5-8 and tickets are available now.

Climate change activists last week dumped horse manure on the lawn at Clarkson's manor house in Chipping Norton, Oxon, in protest at his treatment of the environment.

Dressed as suffragettes, the seven activists from Climate Rush brought their unsavoury offering in a van fuelled by used chip-fat oil and accompanied it with banner bearing the message "This is what you’re landing us in".